Captured Boxed Set: 9 Alpha Bad-Boys Who Will Capture Your Heart (36 page)

"Damn it, she’s gone!"
Bethsaida screeched. Tears gathered and fell unchecked down her brown cheeks. "She
went out with Marc on his shift…"

"Marc? Why?"

"Aaron, let her finish. Can’t
you see she’s upset?" Austin admonished.

Hell, all he cared about right now
was answers. He opened his mouth to give his brother a heartfelt "fuck you"
when Bethsaida spoke up.

"Because his usual partner came
down ill. The last time I talked to her was more than three hours ago. They
were out in the rain and she said something about poachers, but the connection
was poor."

"Then why didn’t she answer
when I called? It was around the same time."

"Her last words were something
about the battery. I guess it was low because right after, the line went dead.
But I’m afraid, Aaron. I swear I heard roaring in the background."

Shit! What if she was hurt? And
worse, what if she’d been attacked again?

Five minutes later they all stormed
into the ranger’s office.

Trefor stood behind the main desk.
An instinctive step back accompanied his first glance at a raging Aaron headed
right for him. If he hadn’t been so anxious to find Reya, Aaron would have
begged the man to say one wrong word so he could beat the shit out of him. But
right now, Trefor was their best hope of finding Reya. Alive.

"Trefor, what time were Reya
and Marc supposed to be back?" When Trefor looked at his watch a little
too slowly, Aaron growled a warning.

"Two hours ago," the
stocky man stammered. "They’re probably at Reya’s place with Bethsaida
getting a snack."

What a dimwit, Aaron thought.
Trefor believed the very woman standing in front of him was in the dining room
feeding Reya? How had the man ever become the director of a wildlife sanctuary?
Maybe he’d have an accident, or perhaps one of the big cats would mistake his
beefy head for a dumb deer in the headlights. After all, the gene pool was
overdue for a good cleansing.

At Trefor’s dumb-as-a-bucket-of-soaked-raisins
look, Bethsaida lost it. She stepped nose to nose with him and screamed like a
drill sergeant. It was rather impressive.

"Listen, you idiot! My Reya is
missing and you’re going to arrange a party to go look for her. And I mean
right this minute, or I’m going to find a very sharp kitchen instrument and gut
your sorry ass!"

But Aaron wouldn’t dare trust
Reya’s safety to such incompetence.

"Better yet, my brothers and I
will take care of it." Aaron leaned forward and hauled Trefor halfway over
the counter he quaked behind. "Listen, idiot, I want the keys to a jeep, a
map of the route they were supposed to take, and I want it thirty seconds ago.
You!" he snarled, motioning to another ranger standing off to the side,
taking in the scene. "Yes, you! Give us each a pistol, fully loaded, and a
tranquilizer gun. You guys form your own teams, take a radio and check in every
twenty minutes. As for the James boys, we’re out of here now. The rest of you
can catch up."

Chapter
Eleven

The groggy aftereffects of the
tranquilizer faded quickly and her heart rate automatically kicked up at the
feel of cool air against her very naked body. No, she must control her physical
reactions or she’d give herself away. She lay perfectly still. There was no
sound, but it was no assurance that she was alone. Back in her skin, her senses
somewhat muted, all she caught was the damp, musty smell always present in
deep, canopied jungle. Forcing her breathing to remain at a slow and even pace,
Reya cracked her eyes open just enough to peek at her surroundings. It looked
like some kind of stone cave, probably one of the many ruins they were forever
uncovering out in the bush. Just enough light filtered in from somewhere to
tell her it was close to twilight.

That meant she was late returning
from patrol. Hopefully someone would notice her missing and think to look for
her. And what happened to Marc? Oh god, had the rogue jag gotten him? Oh,
please let him be okay, she prayed silently.

"I know you’re awake, Reya."

Wait a minute. She knew that voice.
"Marc? What the hell is going on?" she asked incredulously, sitting
up and drawing her knees in close to her body to hide her nakedness. "And
why don’t you have any clothes on?" she asked, bewildered.

Blowing off her question, he took a
step forward with a cold response. "Shift, Reya."

"Shift? What are you, crazy?
And who the hell are you anyway? You look like Marc, but I don’t recall my
friend being such an asshole," she snapped from her perch on the hard
dirt-packed floor.

Her neck snapped sideways as his
hand shot out and slapped her so hard bright points of light danced behind her
eyelids.

Oh hell no! Nobody slapped her like
a bitch and got away with it. Nudity forgotten, she stood up to face her
agitator, hands perched on her bare hips. With a glare, she hissed through
gritted teeth.

"You touch me again and I will
kick your feral ass, Marc!"

"Shift, Reya, and we’ll see."

What was his obsession with her
shifting? And how the hell did he know she had the ability?

"I said shift. Now," he
snarled, stepping much too close for comfort. Reya stood her ground as a
furious blush of anger crept across her bare chest and up her neck. The change
was just under the surface, on the verge of breaking free. She’d always kept
keen control of it, but this asshole was pushing it! But her Aunt Sulu hadn’t
raised her to be a fool. Whatever this rabid and certifiable nut had planned
for her, she must have to shift first. This seemed like a good time to stall
and maybe just get some answers.

"Marc, what’s the deal with
this shift stuff?" she asked dumbly, urging him to spill whatever he knew
or thought he knew.

"What, you thought I was a
blithering, muscle-bound clod like Trefor? I know exactly who, or rather what,
you are, Reya."

She’d perfected the deer-in-the-headlights
look as a child and slipped it onto her face with ease. "What are you
talking about, Marc? Why are you being such an ass? And with me of all people?"

"I’ve known for a while that
you’re a shifter. A beautiful, black jaguar shifter and you are going to be my
mate."

"I can’t mate with you! Eww,
that’s just too nasty." Shit! The words slipped out before she could clamp
her lips shut. His fist flew, and she barely got an arm up to block the punch
that landed on her forearm with a sick slapping sound. That would have really
hurt if it had reached her face.

"Look, Marc, I’m marrying
Aaron, okay? Don’t do this. You’ve always been a good friend to me." Until
now, she thought. "Besides, why would you want to mate a shifter anyway?"

Her question was answered by the
sinewy popping and crunching of rearranging bones as they moved and settled in
their new positions. Eyes wide, she stood still as stone while goose bumps
erupted from neck to knees at the familiar, quiet hiss of lengthening and
stretching muscles. A gasp escaped her throat at the bombshell dropped on her.

Before her stood the regal gold and
black rogue that had challenged her for Aaron after his plane crashed and had
later attacked him. Hell, attacked and injured her. Reya had never seen anyone shift
so fast. Then again, she’d never met another shifter outside her family. Her
head tilted in question as another thought came to her. The dead jaguars.

‘Yes, Reya, I was the one that
attacked the females in the sanctuary. It wasn’t a poacher who didn’t have time
to recover the furs without detection.’ He spoke directly into her head in a
perfect imitation of their dimwitted director Trefor.

"But why?"

‘They refused to mate with me. And
their choice was the same as yours—accept me.’

"Or?" she asked, tilting
her head at the crazy jaguar before her.

‘There is no ‘or’, Reya.’

In his skin, he was already
stronger than her. In his pelt, he was several times faster and stronger. Reya
backed away slowly, more than wary of his intentions. If he attacked her in her
skin, she’d be laid up for weeks recovering. But if she shifted, healing would
occur faster, but she’d be giving in to whatever he had planned for her.

‘I’m disappointed you’ve chosen the
human male. I would make a much better mate, Reya. I would even break with
typical jag behavior and stay with you long after our cubs are born. Maybe even
mate for life.’

Her mind flashed to a terror-filled
night so long ago when her sister and mother fell under the claws of an
infanticidal jaguar shifter. Her father. She had no intention of mating with a
shifter, jaguar or otherwise. She’d fight him tooth and claw first!

Just before she allowed herself to
succumb to the change, the light bulb in her mind clicked on. He wanted her to
shift so he could fuck her in the change! Not only was he a bastard, he was a
sneaky bastard.

Stalking slowly toward her, canines
bared, Marc padded silently across the stone floor of wherever they were. He
pounced. Reya screamed with anger and jumped back, just out of reach of a
powerful swipe aimed at her calves. His roar chilled her blood, but she forced
her legs to move again, unable to suppress another scream as claws tore across
her back. At least it was just a few shallow cuts across the newly healed
muscles rather than the deep gouges he’d obviously intended.

‘I will have you underneath me,
Reya, in your skin or in your pelt. Your choice.’ The words were snarled with
such vehemence she actually flinched.

Damn it, she was a goner,
definitely no match for a fully grown male jaguar determined to sink his barbed
cock into her body and hump her brains out. If she shifted, there’d at least be
a fighting chance.

The
decision made, she dropped to her knees and let the change ripple through her
and prayed she’d be fast enough.

* * *

Aaron adjusted the night-vision
goggles a second time. Something loomed just ahead of them, but with no
definable shape. They’d passed the jeep assigned to Reya and Marc a couple of
hours past. Where the hell were they?

Glad his brothers were there, he
signaled to Austin.

"This is search party two.
We’re less than fifty yards from a big mound-looking thing almost two hours
from Reya’s jeep’s position. Can’t make it out. Anybody have a clue what it is?"
Austin whispered into a wired headset. One of the rangers searching another
part of the reserve called back.

"There are some new dig sites,
recently discovered archaeological finds in your sector, search party two. It’s
probably the Mayflower archaeological mound. Right behind it are some stone
structures that were just excavated."

A vicious roar sounded just ahead.
Sounded like it came from the dig site.

"Search party two, this is
search party one, do you need assistance? We hear cats in your area."

One of those cats could be Reya.
Aaron knew he had to protect her and her secret at all costs.

"No, we’re fine. Stay clear
and just continue searching your areas. We’ll radio back if there’s anything to
report," Aaron answered quickly, clicked off the radio and signaled
silence at his brothers’ raised brows.

Removing his headset, he whispered
a simple "trust me" and pulled his weapons from their borrowed
holsters—a lethal pistol in one hand and a tranquilizer pistol in the other.

His whole body stiffened, not from
the new roar reverberating in the air but the sound of Reya’s screams echoing
through the bush. The first scream had been rage and frustration. The second
was pure terror and pain.

Like a burst of compressed air, all
three of them took off into the darkness of the jungle, legs pumping furiously,
tearing through the thorny branches toward the dig site. Ignoring the scratches
and tears on their faces, arms and clothing, they flew through the thankfully
cleared trails and into a dense mass of vines and ferns.

There was no trail here, just a
huge mound rising up out of the ground, covered with brush and vegetation.
Making their way around, Aaron signaled Anthony and Austin to go to the left
while he flew off to the right. If their luck held, they’d meet up together at
the rear of the structure.

Adrenaline sent his heart up into
his throat as it pounded from a combination of fear and hope. If anything
happened to Reya he couldn’t even wrap his head around what he’d do. The only
thing he could see in his mind’s eye was a curtain of pulsing red rage and
black fear. Please, God, let him get to her in time.

The next scream froze the blood
from his brain all the way down to the middle of his chest as it faded into
nothing.

Just as he hoped, his brothers
pushed aside the overgrown vines and thorns at the same time he did right in
front of a low stone ledge that led into a newly uncovered structure of some
sort. Thankfully, there was a string of dim electric torches lining the walls,
obviously part of the excavation effort. Raising their night-vision goggles,
Aaron again motioned for silence as they moved cautiously into the building and
down a narrow earth and stone hallway to the sounds of scrapes, growls and
snarls.

Toward the rear of the building,
the hallway curved then opened up into a wide room. Three pairs of eyes widened
at the sight of two muscular jaguars fighting to the death. Aaron recognized
both cats.

"No!" he bellowed,
jumping in front of his brothers as they raised their guns to fire. "Don’t
shoot!"

"What the hell?" Anthony
yelled. "Move out of the way, Aaron!"

"No, don’t shoot the black
one! Oh shit!" he yelled as Reya was bowled over by the male rogue. Damn
it, she’d been distracted by their arrival. The sneaky male took complete
advantage of the situation, ran head on at her and plowed her into a stone
wall. Stunned and disoriented, his woman lay on her side, trying desperately to
make it to her feet.

Aaron ran toward her, shaking off
the groping hands of his family who were trying to protect him. He understood
his brothers’ fear and need to keep him safe. But right now, he needed to save
Reya and nothing else mattered.

"Aaron, what the hell are you
doing?" Austin bellowed, trying again to grab hold of him as he ran toward
the big cats.

"No! Get away!" Aaron
screamed wildly, waving both guns like the crazed male he was. But the damned
cat was too close to Reya. He couldn’t shoot for risk of hitting her by
mistake. And they’d already been down that road.

Trying desperately to hold onto
consciousness, Reya turned her head enough to bare a set of wicked, long fangs,
but to no avail. The rogue pounced on her, covering her semiconscious form with
a fully erect jaguar cock prepared to take her.

He could not let this happen. Damn
it, he had to distract it long enough…

Mere feet away from Reya, the male
jag turned on him and attacked. With two hundred and fifty pounds of muscle and
bone behind the blow, the impact sent Aaron’s tranquilizer gun flying across
the room and scuttling across the floor. But his pistol was pinned under his
body as the jag’s teeth sank into the vulnerable space between his neck and
shoulder.

"Get clear, Aaron, damn it!"
Anthony called frantically. Aaron knew there was no chance in hell of getting a
clear shot with the jaguar right on top of him. His only chance was to get his
weapon from where it was pressed into his stomach.

The crunch of teeth against bone
echoed in Aaron’s ears, but all he registered was the sight of Reya, lying much
too still against the wall.

The male had hurt her. A rage
beyond comprehension or control filled him with new strength, new heart, new
determination to avenge his woman.

Anthony and Austin were on either
side of him now, deftly avoiding the sharp claws of the big cat on his back.
Suddenly he was free, turning to see the huge male bearing down on him again,
the razor-sharp maw headed straight for his skull.

No match for the strong jaws,
primal instinct kicked in, erasing any hint of fear. He raised his gun. The jag
batted it away and it joined the tranq gun across the room. Raising a fist, he
shoved it down the jag’s throat, effectively choking him. Now the tables were
turned as the rogue struggled to get free.